I hear from so many people that they can’t live without their print newspaper and morning coffee that I’m often tempted to remind them it’s technically possible to drink coffee while reading the news on your iPad.
The declining relevance of print is top of mind this morning as The New York Times failed to get the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting into its dead-tree edition. Lest you think this is a Boston delivery problem, it’s also not in the replica edition. Needless to say, it’s all over the Times homepage, and it probably found its way into the late city editions as well.
The (deservedly) much-maligned Washington Post managed to go big with the shooting in its print edition. You might say that’s a function of being the hometown paper, but it’s really not. It’s a function of press times.
The Boston Globe leads its print edition with the shooting, alongside the firing of Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
No excuses for the Los Angeles Times, which is three hours behind the East Coast, meaning that the incident took place around 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Of course, even those papers whose editors managed to yell “Stop the presses!” and get the story into print have much more up-to-date news about the shooting in their digital editions today.
We get the print edition of the Sunday Times because, whenever we try to cancel in order to save money, we’re offered a special deal. Digital advertising isn’t worth much, but print ads are still fairly lucrative, especially in the Times and especially on Sunday. But when there’s a big, late-breaking story, digital is the place to be.
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There was a time when a sublime moment in my week was to go to my favorite breakfast spot on a Saturday morning, NYT tucked under my arm, and indulge in both it and two over with bacon and home fries. Heaven. (Of course to do so with the Sunday edition not only not possible, but gauche.) My opposite number was a bit annoyed, but I assured her (well, so I thought) that I could both converse with her and read the paper at the same time. My one and only example of successful multi-tasking. Then came the transition to digital. At first I thought barbaric, insofar as bringing a laptop along (still do). As to use of a smart phone to do the same, give up the obsession for awhile, will ya?
I’ve come around to the advantages of going digital, the “dead tree” technology having had its place as did the telegraph. To my surprise I don’t really miss it all that much (still some vestiges) so far as getting the news and commentary goes (on line replica editions I’ll still go to on occasion) but that ethereal moment on Saturday moments I do miss.
Was thinking exactly the same when I pulled the NYT out of its bag this morning. You’d think they would have gotten the news on the front page if only to protect their future ad revenue. I was disappointed in the NYT decision makers.
Not my print edition up here in Gloucester, which had nothing of the shooting or Cora firing (led sports section.)